F4u-4 and F8F

[pandacat]

Originally Posted by horseback

I don't know who WD is, so I cannot comment on his figures. I simply find that once I level off after a zoom climb and roll out at speeds under 130 knots that gradually (but not slowly) dropping prop pitch from 95% or so down to 80-85% has a noticeable effect on my speedometer dial without having to resort to going over 100% throttle. It may be my imagination, but in-game, the R-2800 seems to pick up speed a bit quicker while you're moving down in prop pitch through that range (hey, it might be an 'exploit' for all I know).

WD is whistlingDeath. Not sure if you know him. My PP control is +/- 5% increment. What about you? Btw, do you fly F4F? Does wildcat have similar powerbands?

[horseback]

Originally Posted by pandacat

WD is whistlingDeath. Not sure if you know him. My PP control is +/- 5% increment. What about you? Btw, do you fly F4F? Does wildcat have similar powerbands?

Know of him in a vague way; the name sounds familiar, possibly from the old Ubi forums.

I use a CH Throttle Quad for prop pitch, radiator, mixture and flaps (it does not increment in small enough bits to be useful for trims in my opinion). I still have a couple of buttons assigned to 'increase PP' and 'decrease PP', but I rarely use them, except to top off my full prop pitch when the axis doesn't go all the way up to 100% (it sometimes will stop at 98% with the lever all the way forward). I doubt that 5% increments would be as effective, but give it a try and see for yourself young padawan...

All aircraft engines have a powerband and the F4F's is similar to the rpm range in the Corsair and Hellcat's, but the Wildcat in-game is sluggish and overweight (not unlike the real thing), and in it, your best protection from the Emperor's Sea Eagles is to keep your altitude advantage as selfishly as possible, develop a good wingman relationship with somebody, learn to use the Thach (not 'thatch'--it's named after a great fighter leader & tactician, not a basket) weave, maintain good comms with your wingman and work to become a good shot. Those were the actual advantages the US Navy and Marine Wildcat pilots used to nullify the Zero, and by the time the Corsair had replaced the F4F in the Solomons the Wildcat owned about a 1.2 to one kill advantage over the Zeke in fighter to fighter combat.

Oh, and don't bother with the FM-2 in-game; it's not remotely the fighter that the real life 'wilder Wildcat' was. It seems even worse to me than the F4F-4, if that is possible. On the plus side, it moves back to the 4-guns arrangement with longer firing time.

cheers

horseback